7:13p.m. Running Django on (mt)

So, I’ve been running on the (mt) Django beta container for a couple of weeks now. So far its been great. I’ve received some questions about it so I figured I’d write up a few notes on the Django container…

• You get total control over your app without having to manage an entire server.

• The level of control vs. stability is perfect. This is my most favorite thing ever.

• You set up and control your Django project/app with a set of terminal commands that all begin with mtd.

• Overall, it’s been extremely stable. I’d venture to say it seems more stable than the Rails container I used to use… my app has not crashed once yet.

• You can run on either the last released version of Django or the latest SVN of Django, and switch back and forth with a couple of mtd commands. You can also just download the SVN yourself if you want to be on a specific revision.

• Note: if you’re running the container on a current SVN of Django (rev. 8015 or above) you will need to add this line to your settings.py for it to run properly:

  FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME = ''

I have to say that (mt) has blown my expectations away as far as hosting is concerned, and the Django container is just a part of that. I’d highly recommend them.

10:10p.m. Django!

Excitement!

I have switched from Rails to Django. Ideally this isn’t too big of a change for you, but it is for me. For the first time ever, I have written my own backend!

For the most part it was simple and incredibly fun. Basically its something I though I’d never be able to do, so I’m way too excited about it. Most things should be about the same. If you find any errors or 404’s, please let me know.

Every few months, I had gone to the Django website, looked around a bit, and chickened out. This last time, though, I started reading about it a bit more. I found some various sites made with Django. Then I read that Mephisto’s template language, Liquid, was based on Django’s built-in template language. That was enough for me to get the book and dive in.

As soon as I did, I totally fell in love. A couple days later and things just started flowing. Next thing I knew, I was a part of the (mt) Django beta and here we are!

I’m sure I’ll be talking more about it soon. With any luck its faster and more fun for all.

Please update your RSS subscriptions to: http://feeds.latherrinserepeat.org/all_articles/. Thanks! :D

11:22p.m. Feed Mess

Quick apology… the feed was a huge mess today, with many repeat postings, mostly due to various newsreader apps caching issues. I believe I worked it all out, and you shouldn’t be seeing any more repeat postings…

If you are seeing multiple instances of the same item please remove the feed and re-add it with this address: http://feeds.latherrinserepeat.org/all_articles/. It seems to be the only way to definitely clear the cache.

Thanks for understanding! :D

11:01p.m. Shiny New Things

So! I have a new layout up. I’ve had the ideas and the illustrations done for some time now. I actually first drew those birds maybe a year ago now… its just taken a while for me to find the time and motivation enough to finish up.

As for inspiration and creation… I guess I tried to make something that was more organic, but still with some structure, which is where I got the idea for the tree. At first everything was a variation of gray, but I quickly got tired of that and added in some rainbow flowers.

I miss the kitty already. But she will be back very soon… I just needed a change for now.

It should look suitable in Safari and Firefox. Of course I’m still working some kinks out and it is all subject to change. If you notice anything, please let me know. :)

I’ve also taken the plunge and switched hosts. Lets face it, (mt) is simply gorgeous. I love the amount of control that I have over everything while still not having to worry about the basics (email, stability, etcetera). I’m sure I’m going to have more to say about them later.

Anyways… so these are the new digs. I hope you like em! :D

10:09p.m. The Problem With Monday Parties

My birthday is on a Monday this year. (My birthday is July 16th)

I was thinking of having a very small (hopefully stress-free) party on the Saturday before my birthday, the 14th. That way anyone who works during the week can make the party (a couple of my friends have rather long commutes) and stay out later.

However, my good friend Laura can’t make it that Saturday because her one other good friend is having her party on the 14th.

I was going to have it the next Saturday, the 21st. However my other friend, Kait, can’t make it because she is going to a Yankee game that day, because her birthday is that Sunday.

That leaves the Friday before my birthday. Which happens to be Friday the 13th. I’m not even a supersticious person but it just sounds like a bad idea.

So fuck it. I’m going to have my party on my real birthday.

9:56p.m. Some More Spring Fixing

Apologies to anyone who visited the site in the past eight hours. My host switched my site to a faster server and the site was a bit of a mess for a while there. Good news is everything should look back to normal and be a little faster. Wee!

Life has been a bit hectic for the past couple of days, but I am very much looking forward to the weekend.

I also finished the first book I’ve read for fun in a year. So now I’m thinking of doing short book reviews along with movies… yay or nay?

5:41p.m. Spring Fixing

Since I suddenly have had some extra time, I finally fixed up the cinema section. It was such a mess.

6:12a.m. Lather Rinse Repeat ‘07 — So Fresh and So Clean

Well it has been almost a year, but Lather Rinse Repeat is back! Yay! Back with a new layout run on a new CMS.

I just finished. I am getting quite sleepy. This is not completely done, of course, but it is certainly close enough. It is messy and although it validated through the software I used, it probably won’t validate on the web yet. So, here it is, as buggy and messy as possible.

For no particular reason here is a [short] list of observations I have made while making the new incarnation of Lather Rinse Repeat.

• Since this was my first time working with WordPress, I started with the Hemingway Theme and essentially hacked it to bits.
• The WordPress TextMate Bundle made working with new template tags pretty much painless.
• TextMate, between its excellent support for Markdown, WordPress and blogging in general, has completely exceeded my expectations of a text editor.
• I used TextMate with Typo, but I never really looked into what it could really do. Boy, can it do a lot.
• WordPress is a lovely CMS with a wonderful community full of resources. Is it perfect? No. Are there somethings plugins don’t fix yet? Yes. Will there every be a perfect CMS? Probably not. Will I keep looking for it and talking about it? Of course.
• I do still want to learn more ruby and eventually do it all on rails again. Keeping a stable version of Typo that was capable of being easily updated was just too difficult to handle last year. WordPress is pretty good if you want to to be able to do plenty of customizing while keeping some sort of upgrade-ability. Or at least it seems to so far.

And there you have it, here is the quick and dirty ‘07 version of Lather Rinse Repeat. Close to a year delayed, and created in a week. More stuff to come. I’m off to bed, I have to go to the dentist in the morning. Teeth are important. Yes they are.